Vodafone is striving to activate the 5G technology Narrowband IoT in existing 4G and LTE networks by the end of the third quarter of the year. This will enable agriculture and industry in remote areas to also integrate their machines and sensors in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). According to Vodafone, this is necessary because it is going to take some time to upgrade the 5G infrastructure, while the manufacturing industry is already reliant on the use of IoT technologies.

Last year, Vodafone provided Germany with 90% network coverage. Thanks to the modernization of 2,000 additional cell towers, this coverage is expected to increase to 95%. Using 800 MHz frequencies, the 4G network essentially offers higher coverage than 5G, which works in the 3.4 to 3.7 GHz range.